


New Yorker

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Gen, Grief/Mourning, New York City, September 11 Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-05
Updated: 2017-08-05
Packaged: 2018-12-11 15:10:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11716938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: He’s Peter Parker from Queens, Peter Parker from New York, New York is in his blood and his bones…and like every other New Yorker, he spent his childhood staring at the empty space in the skyline where two towers used to be.And now this plane, this freaking invisible plane, is gonna crash into Coney Island, and it'shisfault.





	New Yorker

**Author's Note:**

> Something I've really been interested in lately is how September 11 affected American cinema and how our national consciousness around this is played out, particularly in action movies. I think the MCU is a really interesting example of this. And this fic is an attempt to start to explore this.
> 
> (Also I know _Spider-Man: Homecoming_ makes the MCU timeline a bit wonky, but I think this link—https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/163185/which-year-does-spider-man-homecoming-take-place-in—provides a really compelling argument that the film takes place in 2017, and thus that Peter was born in 2002.)

He’s a New Yorker, born and bred, part of the city itself—what was it Mr. Stark had called him? _A friendly neighborhood Spider-Man?_ Queens is his neighborhood, and Queens is in New York, right, so he’s a friendly New York Spider-Man, he’s Peter Parker from Queens, Peter Parker from New York, New York is in his blood and his bones…and like every other New Yorker, he spent his childhood staring at the empty space in the skyline where two towers used to be.

(He’d never seen them, except in old movies and postcards.)

(He’d never seen them, except in everyone else’s eyes.)

And look—grief, he gets. He’s grieved for plenty of people, his parents, and his Uncle Ben, and probably more if he thinks about it, he sees his Aunt May grieve every day, knows what that does to a person…But it’s not just _his_ grief or _his family’s_ grief—he was born into a grieving world, born into a grieving city. He was born in 2002, and he doesn’t remember of course, he was a baby, but he’s pretty sure the smoke hadn’t even cleared yet.

Everyone he knows knew someone, lost someone, that day.

Everyone he knows gazes sadly at the space in the skyline where two towers used to be.

And now this plane, this freaking invisible plane, is gonna crash into Coney Island, and it doesn’t matter that that’s in Brooklyn, and that he's from Queens, it’s New York and he’s the Friendly New York Spider-Man, and it’s his city, _his_ …And it’s _his_ fault—this plane is gonna crash into Coney Island and it’s _his fault…_

(Mr. Stark had said: _What if someone had died? That’s on you._ )

He was born into his grieving city, and he's not gonna let people die like that again, not gonna let his city grieve like that again, not for him, or for Mr. Stark, or for _anyone._

He gets the plane to turn, just slightly, but enough, _just_ enough. 

(It crashes on an empty beach instead.)

(When he regains consciousness and sits up, he’s pretty sure he can just about make out the Freedom Tower in the distance.)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


End file.
